


A brief conversation between the hot-headed woman and the sentimental gringo

by zauberer_sirin



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Character Study, Episode Tag, Gen, Male-Female Friendship, POV Yo Yo Rodriguez, Post 4x03, The Coulson/Daisy is very implied but just in case, also mention of YoYo/Mack, basically wish fulfillment about people telling each other how much they love Daisy, not much value other than that
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-19
Updated: 2016-10-19
Packaged: 2018-08-23 07:53:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,924
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8319859
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zauberer_sirin/pseuds/zauberer_sirin
Summary: Elena hopes to leave the base without anyone noticing. But Coulson notices.(Post-4x03 Coulson-YoYo friendship ficlet)





	

In her family they say she gets a “cabeza caliente”, and this hot head of hers is something that has been a trait since Elena was a child. Her anger determined her nicknames and reputation all through her childhood; her cousins from Barranquilla used to say that when Elena got mad her head got hot enough to “fry an egg on it”. She can remember how mad she would get as a girl and how she could feel every inch of her face burning up as if she had a fever. sometimes she got so mad she ended up crying.

Well, she is not going to cry now.

In a moment she will be out of here (she still is not sure they won’t just keep her here, every time she comes to the base) and she will be able to cool her head.

Except for the fact that the former Director catches her as she is about to use her -temporary, always granted like a big favor by the guys in suits- SHIELD ID to open the gate.

She had wanted to slip away unnoticed while the others finished their beers and finished watching the new Director speak on television. She knew if she stayed she’d argue with Mack again.

Mack. Damn him. She can’t even picture his face right now, she’s so angry. If he wasn’t so cute and sexy (okay, and so brave and kind and sweet) Elena would be done with him. She knows he’s worried and that he loves pulling that big brother act with everyone. But in this case he’s wrong. Elena always knows when she is right, and there’s nothing more angering than when other people couldn’t see it.

That was the other thing her family always said to her. _Why do you always have to be right?_ Well, she didn’t have to, but when she was right, she was right. And she wouldn’t have gotten to where she is if she hadn’t been willing to fight when she was right. 

Even if that meant fighting the guy she adored.

Talking to her as if she wasn’t worried about Daisy too. As if she was somehow harming Daisy instead of helping her.

Elena had always been a loner, all her life, and she was fine with that, but then Daisy showed up and taught her that she didn’t have to be. She showed Elena the joy of fighting side by side her sisters and brothers, rather than on her own. Elena would love to pay her with the same coin, show her that she didn’t have to do this alone - but she couldn’t do it by force. She couldn’t do that to her, not to Daisy Johnson with the huge sad eyes and the huge sad heart.

“Leaving us so soon?” Coulson asks her when he reaches her side.

Lo que me faltaba, Elena whispers between her teeth before turning around, putting her card away.

“Yeah, I don’t think Agent Mackenzie wants me around right now,” she replies, not bothering to hide her annoyance, crossing her arms.

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

He sounds sincere, and she wonder just how much Mack has told him. Hard to say with Coulson, he keeps his cards close to his heart, as they say in English. Gringos’ sincerity is something Elena instinctively mistrusts but Coulson has earned some benefit of the doubt, after everything she’s seen him do for his team, and the stuff Daisy has half-told about him.

She also thinks he probably deserves to know she has been stealing from SHIELD, and maybe she wanted to evade that responsibility by just leaving. It’s easy to run away when you have superhuman speed but of course Elena’s power means she will always end up exactly where she started. He’s not the Director anymore but he could get into a bigger problem for it than Mack, or herself (not that she cares about that).

“So it’s _your turn_ to chew my ear now?” she comments, testing the waters.

“No. Why?” he frowns. So maybe he really doesn’t know about the whole business. Then, after a beat: “Because of the meds.”

It sounds like a realization, like it hadn’t occurred to him that Elena might be worried about that.

“Of course because of the meds, Coulson. Are you gonna slap my wrist, make me sign some more documents?”

Apart from being a hot head her family always warned her that she didn’t think about consequences. That wasn’t true, but Elena understood how people got the wrong idea about her. Consequences are not all that matters, so people should stop obsessing so much. Sometimes you just have to do things. and to hell what happens afterwards.

She understands why Daisy asked for her help, instead of calling Coulson or Mack. Those guys can be a little too much at times. From what she has seen of Daisy she wants to be left alone these days. Elena knows how to leave people alone. It doesn’t mean it’s not hurting her. It doesn’t mean she doesn’t want to just grab Daisy by the arm and bring her back to her home, where it’s safe for her and she doesn’t have to be lonely and brave all the time. Where her eyes don’t have to look like that.

 _I know asking you to do this for me can get you into trouble,_ Daisy had told her when she contacted her about the drugs, waiting for Elena to say no if she wanted. _But the Watchdogs are out there every day, hurting people…_

Elena understood what she meant. Daisy thought she had to be out there every day as well, fighting, or otherwise no one would be there to protect Inhumans. And she was probably right. Certainly the government was not going to lift a finger for people like Daisy and Elena. But when has any government done anything but for its own benefit? Elena decided to do what Daisy asked, and not just because Daisy was her friend. Because Elena understood. In a way that perhaps those Daisy loved the most wouldn’t.

“Slap your wrist? No,” Coulson is telling her now. He suddenly puts his back very straight, his frame very stiff and official. “If anything I would like to thank you, Agent Rodriguez.”

“Thank me? Esta es nueva. Thank me for what?”

“Stealing the drugs,” Coulson says. “Risking being caught. For being there for Daisy when we can’t.”

Now that she pays attention Coulson’s eyes look a bit like Daisy’s. Like there’s something missing.

“You’re welcome,” she replies awkwardly and they both smile, aware of the absurd that is that he is thanking her for stealing. This must be a first in her life, Elena thinks. Not the stealing, of course. The other thing.

“Next time it would be better if you just asked.”

Elena steps back, smelling foul play.

“I’m not telling you if Daisy contacts me again.”

“You don’t have to. Just say you need to raid our medical supplies. We won’t ask questions.”

“Mack would ask questions. He’d probably want to follow me,” Elena says, sighing a bit.

Coulson puts his hands on his hips. It’s a bit distracting, seeing the band of metal where his fake hand meets his real arm, every time he rolls up his sleeves. She tries not to stare.

“He would probably want to do that,” he agrees about Mack. “But you are _very fast_.”

Elena smirks, of course proud of her power. But it’s plain weird to be conspiring with the man who used to be Director of SHIELD about how she can get drugs out of their storage rooms. but this feelings of shared mischievousness (thought from the least likely source) makes her think of Daisy again.

“I told Daisy you wouldn’t give up on finding her,” Elena says, because at the end of the day she also wants Daisy back, and Coulson is the best chance they have, even if he’s also the main reason why Daisy is scared of returning.

“I won’t,” he tells Elena. “I can’t keep looking for her when I know she doesn’t want me to find her.”

 _She wants you to_.

“But I can make sure she has a place where she can come back to,” he adds.

Such a sentimental gringo. For a fleeting moment - for the life of her Elena can’t understand what people see in white guys - she understands why Daisy would be so hung up on this guy, and why she is scared of facing him most of all. She is just as hopelessly sentimental.

Elena wants to say something nice to Coulson, maybe try to make up for the fact that Daisy can’t be here.

“You have nice beer in your kitchen,” she tells him.

“You should stay and try the ones hidden under the sink,” he offers.

Elena turns the SHIELD identity card in her hand. She doesn’t like being in the system, now much less, for the obvious. But seeing her name over the organization’s emblem makes her slightly happy. _Tonta_ , she thinks. Like Daisy, she had never wanted to belong anywhere oficial. And she guesses that like Daisy she has changed her mind without noticing.

Tempted to tell Agent Coulson to keep those beers cold for her, Elena just shakes her head.

“Are you going back to Miami?” Coulson asks.

She almost winces. With all the fuss she had almost forgotten about the mess she left back in Miami. Now her friend’s words come back to her. She thought she was prepared for that possibility - the rejection - and convinced herself that the only reason she wasn’t telling anyone was safety. But she had feared this outcome all along. Maria’s word sting managed to hurt, in the end.

“That was the plan,” Elena replies. “Though I’m not sure if I still have any friends left there, after they discovered my secret.”

Coulson nods thoughtfully.

“Some people need time to process this kind of thing,” he says, typical gringo answer. “Other people… you could give them all the time in the world and they’d still be jerks.”

That makes her smile a bit. Feel a little bit better, maybe she’s being petty.

“I hope your friends are the first kind,” he adds.

“Thanks.”

He steps back, giving her space to finally leave like she was about to when he interrupted her.

“And if that doesn’t work out…” he adds. “Remember you’ll always have a place here in SHIELD, Daisy or no Daisy, regardless of Agent Mackenzie’s feelings on the matter. That’s what I came to tell you, Elena.”

Her name sounds all wrong with gringo accents, but at least he tries. She is grateful beyond words for what he just said, but gratefulness of that kind is embarrassing, so she gives the man a little knowing nod before turning around.

She realizes she is no longer angry, her head no longer all hot, like when she first wanted to leave.

“See you around, Agente Coulson.”

“Te estaremos esperando,” he says after him, still painfully clumsy but obviously knowing what he’s saying. 

She is not ready to go back to Miami yet, though. She is not ready to face what kind of friends her friends will turn out to be.

She can’t talk to Mack again just yet. Soon. But not yet.

Maybe she’ll go back to L.A. Stick around. See what’s all the fuss about the flaming head. See if she manages to bump into some very good friend of hers.


End file.
